Ever since Polex began four years ago, we have avoided announcing jobs and events. We know many of you appreciate that we rarely send out more than two messages per month and that those messages always promote interesting new studies. This message is an exception. We thought you might like to get an up-date about CIFOR and to assist us identify outstanding candidates to fill some of our key staff positions.

Some things are changing at CIFOR; others remain the same. We are now working harder to show the important role that forests can play in addressing the challenges of poverty, poor health, violence, corruption, and environmental destruction. We are devoting more attention to communications and becoming more systematic about achieving impact.

At the same time, CIFOR remains a “center without walls”, which emphasizes networking, capacity building, and strong partnerships. Our vision of multidisciplinary research that brings together silviculture, ecology, social sciences and other disciplines continues to inspire everything we do. We still stand for rigorous and objective analysis and for promoting constructive and informed dialogue between industry groups, private companies, government agencies, NGOs, and local communities.

Our Board of Trustees recently approved a new program structure whereby we will have only three programs instead of six. These programs will be: Forests and Livelihoods, Environmental Services and Sustainable Use of Forests, and Forest Governance. The new structure will not significantly change the content of our research, but it should make our operations more efficient and give our partners a better sense of what we are about.

We are currently recruiting to fill the positions of Assistant Director General, Program Director of each of our three new programs, and Resource Mobilization Officer / Fundraiser, and we need your assistance to identify potential candidates for these positions. Attached you will find the job announcements. We are particularly interested in candidates from developing countries and women.

We hope you find Polex useful. Now it is our turn to ask a favor. Please help us find excellent people that are firmly committed to using research as a tool to improve rural livelihoods and encourage sustainable forest management.